The Solar System

The makeup:
Members of the Solar System are
1) The Terrestrial planets-like Earth/land; made of rock & metal; Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars
2) The Jovian planets-like Jupiter; made of liquid balls that are extremely cold; 90% methane & amonia plus hydrogen & helium; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
3)Asteroids/Meteors-made of rock & metal; like earth.
4) comets-frozen gas made of hydrogen & helium
*notice: According to Astronomers, Pluto is no longer a planet. It is simply classified as a minor planet.
~The smallest planet is Mercury. The Largest Planet is Jupiter.
~Stars are not part of the solar system.
~In order to be a planet: 1) It must rotate the sun 2) and it must be a certain size.

Size and Arrangement:
Smallest-Largetst: Mecury, Mars, Venus, Earth, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, SUN
Location closest to Sun-My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos. That order just means Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Comets:
Greeks described comets as "long haired." Astronomer, Fred Whipple, compared comets to dirty snowballs. They are Frozen gases with dust particles. Closer than Saturn, gases melt and form tail. Tail glows and reflects sunlight. The head is a few miles apart. Comet tails go away from the sun because the solar wind keeps the tail flowing.

Asteroids:
-made of rock & metal; largest one is 300 miles across; most orbit between Mars and Jupiter some are earth crossing.

Meteors:
-also known as falling stars; made of small pieces of rock & metal; size of a grain of sand; if larger than fist-then it will hit the earth; if smaller than fist-then it will burn up (a.k.a. falling stars)
Meteor larger than your fist that hit the Earth are called Meteorites.
Meteors burn up at a hight of 60 miles.

today Mr. Dowdy taught our class these facts. I felt ashamed for not knowing much about our Solar System. I want you to have the priviledge to learn it too!

Enjoy :)